Boomkin leveling ... broken?

Im trying to level my main, a lvl 88 Nelf Druid atm, to lvl 90.
Since I work with a rotating system where I change specs every expansion, Im now 'forced'
to use balance as my main dps spec ... and its horrible.

- My cast times are to long ( wrath/starfire)
- A LOT of mobs have interrupts
- Its a drag to keep 'fires on at all time.
- Im healing myself every few seconds ( if I pull more then 1 mob, I'm spending more time healing then doing damage...)
...

It just feels like my single target dps is so so bad at the moment, every mob is like a mini boss.

" He has never wanted to occupy the throne himself; he prefers the backseat – more room to spread out, you see. "
- J.K. Rowling

are you in full greens with a few blues? I have that problem too as a ret paladin (needing to heal more than DPS). I imagine it'll change once you/we/I get to 90 and start to get raid geared....I hope?

I am also leveling as boomkin to 90. It seems that the only thing that I excel at is running away and hiding when another player attacks or I pulled too many mobs. I am almost always the lowest DPS in dungeons and as far as BGs I may as well not bother. I may be forced to play my S priest or ret as my main this expansion unless the damage is fixed.
A friend of mine has had a lvl 90 boomkin for a few days and it does not seem to get any better at 90.

dot the world and then cast until it's dead unless you have 4 or more targets, with 4 or more use hurricane after you get dots up. keep rejuv up on yourself at all times, NS healing touch and barkskin yourself if you're getting trucked, ive played boomkin for a long time but it all felt pretty normal/easy leveling to me, dotting everything and being able to take down way larger groups than i can as most other dps specs. also with incarnation and celestial alignment you can basically kill a group of 10+ every 3 minutes in under 15 seconds. and with typhoon/ursol's vortex you shouldn't be getting hit too much no matter what size group you pull.

i honestly thought this thread was going to talk about how it's too easy before i clicked on it... lol

It helps you open with travel time spells on mobs that are gonna aggro to you. If you can get a couple spells in the air, you can hit your dots once the spells arrive, and the mob will be down a good chunk by the time they aggro. On my lock I leveled as destro, and I would cast chaos bolt, incinerate, then conflagrate, and all 3 would arrive at the same instant, and the mob would be at half hp when it aggros to me, rather than doing the usual preference and opening with a dot, because the mob would aggro to you with a lot more hp.

I kinda felt the same way leveling my fire mage. Although since i don't have many heals I kited almost everything as they hit me pretty hard. (Those fucking tigers in the wilds. Fuck.) Felt like it took forever to kill mobs sometimes because I couldn't sit and cast well.

My advice: don't be afraid to whisper and group up with someone you see doing the same quests as you. Especially if they are melee they can "tank" for you.

dot the world and then cast until it's dead unless you have 4 or more targets, with 4 or more use hurricane after you get dots up. keep rejuv up on yourself at all times, NS healing touch and barkskin yourself if you're getting trucked, ive played boomkin for a long time but it all felt pretty normal/easy leveling to me, dotting everything and being able to take down way larger groups than i can as most other dps specs. also with incarnation and celestial alignment you can basically kill a group of 10+ every 3 minutes in under 15 seconds. and with typhoon/ursol's vortex you shouldn't be getting hit too much no matter what size group you pull.

i honestly thought this thread was going to talk about how it's too easy before i clicked on it... lol

It doesn't sound like you're talking about 87-90, it sounds like you're talking about 1-85, which is completely different.

Anyway, yeah, I've leveled Boomkin in the past but I went Feral and it's just ridiculously easier. You chew through mobs in half the time without having to worry about interrupts. Once you hit level 88, you really just can't pull more than 3 mobs as Balance in standard questing greens unless you're running planning to 3x Starfall, which is fine to do on occasion, but not interesting to plan to every pull around. It's far easier just to not bother with it and go Feral.

I had no issues as Ret (heroic DS gear), Arms (85 greens), or Frost (normal DS gear) so far, but only the Ret has gone all the way.

Leveling as balance is very annoying for me, mostly because being in an eclipse is such an enormous damage boost that whenever you are not in one (which happens a lot when you are questing and killing things as fast as you can) everything feels like wet noodles. Chain killing quest mobs is very inconsistent. Even though I don't like seriously dpsing as feral, leveling as feral is much smoother and faster.

Leveling as balance is very annoying for me, mostly because being in an eclipse is such an enormous damage boost that whenever you are not in one (which happens a lot when you are questing and killing things as fast as you can) everything feels like wet noodles. Chain killing quest mobs is very inconsistent. Even though I don't like seriously dpsing as feral, leveling as feral is much smoother and faster.

Yep, same. I'm going Feral for leveling then back to Balance/Resto at 90.

It doesn't sound like you're talking about 87-90, it sounds like you're talking about 1-85, which is completely different.

Anyway, yeah, I've leveled Boomkin in the past but I went Feral and it's just ridiculously easier. You chew through mobs in half the time without having to worry about interrupts. Once you hit level 88, you really just can't pull more than 3 mobs as Balance in standard questing greens unless you're running planning to 3x Starfall, which is fine to do on occasion, but not interesting to plan to every pull around. It's far easier just to not bother with it and go Feral.

I had no issues as Ret (heroic DS gear), Arms (85 greens), or Frost (normal DS gear) so far, but only the Ret has gone all the way.

i just leveled 2 druids from 85-90 and the entire process was very fast and easy for me. questing while at 90 in vale is also very fast and easy, seems like im in the minority here but i don't think there's any problems with boomkin leveling 87-90.

I chose to level as moonkin as well (since I play resto), and I had the same problem. It was hard for me to tell if I was weak because of my lack of experience with the spec and my resto reforges, but I got a ton of whispers from other druids on my way to level 90, asking me if I didn't agree that moonkin questing is horrible. Apart from the times I could cast starfall, I had to pull very little at the time or simply kite, or I'd have to heal nonstop.

A few days I got my shadow priest to level 90, and I had no survival issues while levelling except for when I really did overpull, and things generally died about 3 times faster. Both characters were 400+ when I started questing on them.

I leveled my moonkin from 85 to 90 in 29 hours (+6 hours of sleep) and i have NO problems at all. Moonkin leveling is not broken...perhaps you just dont know how to play it as solo. (Means lot of doting, running, perma rejuvenation with glyph of moonbeast, using your talent abilities such is typhoon or greater bash - i died only once while leveling on the first day)

I leveled my moonkin from 85 to 90 in 29 hours (+6 hours of sleep) and i have NO problems at all. Moonkin leveling is not broken...perhaps you just dont know how to play it as solo. (Means lot of doting, running, perma rejuvenation with glyph of moonbeast, using your talent abilities such is typhoon or greater bash - i died only once while leveling on the first day)

... Thats still A LOT of work to kill 1-2 mobs compared to the roflstomping arcane/frost mages and elemental shamans

" He has never wanted to occupy the throne himself; he prefers the backseat – more room to spread out, you see. "
- J.K. Rowling

I don't understand how people had problems. Pulling 5-7 mobs with cooldowns on got a bit close but with clever kiting and healing its easy.
Use abilities like Typhoon and Ursol's Vortex and have Rejuvenation on when pulling more than 1 mob.

As a 89 moonkin, the only time I had to heal myself a lot was when I aggroed too many mobs (4+) accidentally. And with moonbeast, casting rejuv' on yourself when running from one mob to another isn't something I would call downtime.

Also, remember you have a spell which allows you to get to the next eclipse in 5sec. If you want to pull every mob with eclipsed DoTs.

And yes, the typhoon + ursol's vortex is awsome ! No mob on you for 10 sec !

... Thats still A LOT of work to kill 1-2 mobs compared to the roflstomping arcane/frost mages and elemental shamans

That's my problem, I levelled all the way as boom, previously I played feral, it felt like so much harder. I always felt on edge for that mispull that dragged a 3rd mob. I would not recommend levelling as boom, really painful.

Playing a moonkin and when dual spec hit resto since the start. So i know how to play my chickentree. I dodnt have the problems you have. But i do reconize them. Using cooldowns its doable to pull big mobs. But pre hc gear its harder. Your spells take to long and there dps is al over the place. Wrath seems the worst it goes from 20k to 120k with me. But when you hit better gear it will get better. But!!!!!!!!!!for myself its always been like this. In the beginning of a expansion we always suck. If someone else is saying something different they are lying. We lack the haste, mastery levels that gives our moon the boom. If you look at later in the expansions we rock. I could easly out dps a mage,hunter lock and shammy in end game. Some mages alltough where though and so where go shadoe priest.

So for you. No your moonkin is not broken itsnwrath only. And dodnt forget to take the right symbo mabye you can get sime extra dps out of it.

I don't understand how people had problems. Pulling 5-7 mobs with cooldowns on got a bit close but with clever kiting and healing its easy.
Use abilities like Typhoon and Ursol's Vortex and have Rejuvenation on when pulling more than 1 mob.